Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Wednesday 11/15 A.M. Quickie:Matsuzaka Makes Sox Team to Beat?

Red Sox win Matsuzaka lottery: Well, if out-bidding your nearest rival by an extreme amount is "winning." But if the new meme in MLB is that starting pitching is everything, then the Red Sox invested wisely in plunking down $51.1 million for the rights to try to sign Daisuke Matsuzaka. What price, top-line starting pitching? And if you put him in the mix with Schilling, Beckett and Papelbon, that's as good a foursome as there is in the AL.

Presuming they can sign him, the Sox are the team to beat in the AL East, if not the entire AL. I already said earlier this week that I'm picking Matsuzaka to win the AL Cy Young next season.

A sidebar that's going to be fascinating is seeing what kind of deal Boras gets for him. I'm hearing 4 years/$40 million, but doesn't $10 million a year seem a little low for a No. 1 starting pitcher? I mean, old-ass Mike Mussina just got $11 million a year for two years to stay with the Yankees. But when you combine Matsuzaka's $51 million with his actual contract with the Red Sox, you're looking at what could be a $20 million-a-year pitcher. Whoa.

(But I'm totally in agreement with the analysts pointing out the halo effect for the Red Sox in Asia because of this – for scouting, for marketing. What if they can make back their posting bid just on selling marketing rights in Japan?)

More of today's storylines:

Worst book idea ever? That would be OJ's upcoming book about how he WOULD have killed Nicole Brown...you know...if he hadn't been...uh...innocent.

Brandon Webb wins NL Cy, beating out my choice, the ageless Trevor Hoffman, who both led the NL in saves AND set the career saves record, in addition to leading his team to the playoffs. Is Webb the least distinguished NL Cy winner of the last decade? Of the ESPN Era?

Today's Awards: Managers. This one is easy: In the AL, it's Jim Leyland in a rout. In the NL, it's Joe Girardi. Anything else is a joke.

Zitopalooza: The Rangers are reportedly interested in Barry Zito. Scott Boras just got giddy at the thought of the Rangers and Mets trying to out-bid each other. And that's AFTER he does his Matsuzaka deal.

A-Rod opt-out in '07? Interesting note in today's NY Post: A-Rod has an opt-out deal after '07, which could let him become a free agent (if he's willing to trade the $27 million per season owed to him for, say, $20 million and the right to pick his destination).

NFL Notes: (1) Vinny Testaverde to the Pats. Who doesn't want to see him end up playing? Let him try a drop-kick! (2) Lions assistant coach Joe "Driving While Naked" Cullen is going to get a plea deal. (3) Apparently, Leon Washington's football card has him flashing the bird. He claims it's a hand-signal to his old neighborhood, but it doesn't matter: All of a sudden, that's his claim to fame. Enjoy. (4) Trent Green is cleared to play. If you're KC, do you stick with Huard after last week's impotent loss? (5) Albert Haynesworth is back from his suspension. Not sure if there's a welcome mat.

NFL Network vs. Congress: Ostensibly, they were talking about the subscriber fee that NFL Net is demanding cable systems pay them, or they'll hold out on actual game programming on, say, Thanksgiving. Cable systems are balking. Here's what I'd say if I was a cable system: Sure, NFL, I'll pay you 70 cents per subscriber for the NFL Network... IF you let cable systems have access to "Sunday Ticket," which is currently only available to DirecTV subscribers. I've never understood the NFL's judgment on this: Sure, "Sunday Ticket" basically made DirecTV's business, but aren't they keeping the NFL from millions of willing buyers by not letting it be available on cable?

OSU-Michigan Countdown: Has anyone else noticed that each team has just a single truly "quality" win? And OSU's win over Texas doesn't look nearly as impressive as it did a week ago. Meanwhile, does Michigan's blowout win at Notre Dame offset an otherwise sickly schedule?

(Please stop saying that Michigan beating Wisconsin is some kind of high-quality win. It's an OK win, but if you look at Wisco's creampuff schedule, they're the softest 1-loss team in the country. And please note that I actually like the Wisconsin program.)

The winner of this game obviously deserves to be in the national-title game, but the loser will have precisely one quality win to point to. Hardly championship-worthy.

Bobby Knight "slap" incident, Day 2: There IS no Day 2. This thing fizzled almost as soon as it started. His AD defends him. The player and his parents defend him.

Give Knight credit: For all his volatility, he knows how to defuse situations. He gave playful slaps on the rear to several of his players last night. Outraged columnists, this simply wasn't the incident to harp on.

(The one argument from his defenders I still don't get is that somehow "discipline" – in the larger sense, not just for Knight -- is equated to "physically touching someone." Why argue that's OK?)

More college hoops: It's cupcake time! No. 1 Florida won by 46. No. 2 UNC won by 22. Marquette won by 42. Let's get to some of the more interesting tournaments later this month.

FloridaState fans rejoice: Embattled/crappy offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden has resigned, but – confusingly – he'll get to finish out the season. What's the point of THAT?

NBA: Melo's 33 trumped Dwyane's 37 because Shaq had 0 (in a DNP-Knee). It's hard to gauge the state of the Heat when they play without Shaq. Isn't the fact they were in the game late a signal that with a healthy Shaq, they're still the team to beat? Meanwhile, the Jazz are 7-1 after beating the Clippers by 22. Who turned them into the Spurs?

Finally: I'm always impressed with the way that MLB Hot Stove news finds a way to grab headlines during what should otherwise be a dead season for baseball. I think it really entrenched itself in the A-Rod/Red Sox situation a few seasons ago. Anyway, this is amazing: It's the middle of November. It's the week of Ohio St-Michigan, it's the middle of NFL season, it's the start of college hoops and the NBA is heating up -- and what is the biggest story of the midweek? The Red Sox signing a Japanese pitcher that the vast majority of MLB fans have never even really seen play.

87 comments:

I can't see A-Rod opting out of his contract. He will have to be shoved out of NY before he "quits". He wants to prove to everyone that he can be successful under the bright lights of NYC and he won't leave on his own until he does so. (I argue he has been pretty damn successful since he signed but somehow a guy who drives in 120 runs a season is not productive for his team...anyone want to explain that to me?)

Michigan right now is the only team to have handed 2 other teams their only loss this year. If they lose to OSU, there will be one other team that can say this: OSU. I'm not sure any other team will be able to make this claim by year's end, no matter how things shake out. (Of course, a ND loss changes that, at least for Michigan.) Just saying, is all. (i.e. any time you hand a team their only loss of the year, that is a mega-quality win).

I don't know, more than a stirkeout per inning in a league that contains mostly contact hitters, that's a pretty good sign no? I guess we'll wait and see...

And I agree with ndyanksfan05. As much as I hate ARod (his classless play in the 04 ALCS, slapping the ball sealed it for me) he has been productive for the yanks and treated unfairly, but I don't think he'll opt out.

The rationale this AM I heard on Boston radio is that the Red Sox are now in the driver's seat. Boras does not have any more leverage with Matsuzaka, in theory, because he can't pit teams against each other (a la "Bowling for Zito"). Therefore the Sox can set a price- maybe even below market. Matsuzaka made "only" $3 million last season for Seibu. Even if the Sox double his salary, they get a relative bargain. And word is Daisuke does NOT want to go back to Japan next season (he would dishonor himself after indirectly declaring his desire for better competition in MLB).

I say it ends up splitting the difference between the $12 mil per Mussina signed for and the $6 mil that would double Matsuzaka's salary from Japan.

Call it an even $9 million per over 4 years. Maybe 5 if the Sox want to commit that long... heck, he's only 26 now- he'd still be just 31.

The NC looks like a three game playoff (unfortunately one of the three winners of the three games is going to get snubbed). Assuming Ark can get past LSU and USC can get past CAL the OSU/Mich, USC/ND and SEC Championship games are the playoffs right now, with ND/USC with the inside track to make it the NC game. Florida and Arkansas needs CAL to beat USC and USC to beat ND. If any of those four teams win out it is impossible to say which deserves it more than the others. There is no clear favorite among the bunch.

Arkansas loss to USC was a complete and total domination. They need USC to win out to make it seem like less of a sin. But then why doesn't USC deserve to go over Ark. who they beat.

USC lost to an unranked opponent - that should weigh heavily against them

ND lost big to Mich at home - but a win against a one loss USC team at the Colloseum would be huge (30 game home win streak on the line)

Florida - honestly, there is no real good reason to not pick them other than the fact that they have not played well for the past month or so and needed two blocked field goals and a blocked extra point to beat South Carolina (how is that not more embarressing than ND beating UCLA on a two minute drill touchdown). Also, scheduling West Carolina this late in the season is a SIN. There is no justification for it. Playing bad teams is one thing, a lot of teams schedule some easy games in the early going to gain some momentum and in a one-loss and your out system it is reasonable. Some teams schedule bad teams based on traditions and rivalries...but this is a sham and should not be tolerated...basically my only argument against Florida and its more of a "what the f--- are they thinking, shame on them" response.

In other words its a mess that is oing to cause a shitstorm at the end of the season....

I agree, Wisconsin is weak. The only reason they have just 1 loss is that they had a weak non-conference schedule, played in the weak Big 10, and didn't have Ohio State on the schedule this year. If everyone is going to accuse Rutgers, WVU, and Louisville of having an inflated BCS ranking because they didn't play anybody, then the same holds true for Wisconsin.

Matsuzaka IS proven against Major League hitters. He proved it in the World Baseball classic. He'll be fantastic until people figure him out. For the most part, Japanese and other Asian pitchers have done well in the Majors in the first year or so because of the "unorthodox" delivery. Nomo won NL Rookie of the Year and B-Y Kim was fantastic until his meltdown in the WS. Irabu was just a fat slob. Matsuzaka will be fine for the first year or so, then we'll see.

Glad OJ is so broken up about his wife being murdered that he can go out and write a book and do interviews about how he would have killed her.

Yeah, he is totally innocent. He is just mocking the legal system at this point.

And this Bobby Knight thing was so overblown. Those kind of stories make me hate turning on ATH (among many, many other reasons) because you know one idiot is going to act like it is the worst thing ever.

The Sox cannot make there 51 million back in marketing deals unless their marketing deals net some 1.6 Billion since they would have to share all of it evenly with the rest of the league. TV deals, merchendise deals, camps, clinics and whatever else they come up with are all owned by MLB, not by the individual team. I don't know why more journalists/ESPN hasn't picked up on this yet.

(a) Lets say anything short of a CY Young Award like season, cause we all know the best doesnt always win it.

(b) 4 years x 12 Mil per = 48 Mil + 51 mil = 99 mil or 25 mil per year. So basically you discounted this Matsuzaka's $51 million with his actual contract with the Red Sox, you're looking at what could be a $20 million-a-year pitcher. Whoa. by upping the price.

It's a shame George and Brian Cashman weren't willing to go the extra mile to ensure the best possible product on the field next year. Mussina for 2 more years?

As for being untested against major league hitters, isn't that the AL fans' snide commentary against NL pitchers? Maybe the Japan leagues (they did win the WBC) might consider the NL quad-A and the AL quint-A as minor leagues, anyway.

Steve Bedrosian doesn't exactly send chills down my back on the list of Cy Young winners, either.

Does Leon Washington have a better, more famous older brother as a teammate?

Honestly, I'd like to see Congress bitch-slap the "almighty" NFL just once, so they can see how it feels. Lord knows, baseball takes it up the tushie all the time.

And if you try to dig up blemishes on OSU and Michigan, then aren't you really trying to come to the conclusion that there are NO good college football teams? As in, Why have the championship, because they apparently *all* suck? Come on, already.

And I do agree the A-Rod winter of 03-04 did suddenly make the hot stove much more of something to follow....and hey, it's way more riveting than NFL draft previews in March.

NESN while a majority of it is owned by the Sox is still a seperate entity and is not subject to revenue sharing.

What is being said is most expect Boston to mainly feel the effects in terms of merchandise sold such as Matsuzaka jerseys in Japan which is subject to revenue sharing.

My suggestion to Boston is to perhaps branch off of NESN with a full japanese language version that includes japanese language play by play for each game and studio shows with Japanese hosts (perhaps Matsuzaka's wife who is a reporter?). This could be more benefitting if Boston also wins the rights to that third baseman which will be announced later this week.

In order to do this though, Boston would have to make a solid commitment to Japanese players. SHould they add a NESN Japan type channel in Japan then they would make million and millions on the advertising for commercials and stuff there.

Another thing to look at would be Japanese language merchandise such as what the Patriots are doing since it was announced they would be playing in China next pre-season.

I won't accept any criticism like this about Michigan (re:Ball State), so I might as well jump in for Florida too.

Do you realize that Florida has played 10 games in 11 weeks? And in the next month, they have to play W. Carolina, Florida State (which, let's assume, they expected to be more of a game than it's looking like right now), and an SEC Championship Game. I hope you can forgive them for not scheduling ND in the middle of that.

If you paid any attention to my annoyed ranting after the UM-Ball State game, you might remember that I said Michigan was resting all their players, because they freaking need it. When it comes down to it, I wish they hadn't even scheduled that game, because it meant that everybody on the team had to dress and play for 11 straight weeks coming into the biggest football game possible. But somebody decided we need 12 games, and I guess Ball State's coach used to be an assistant here at UM, so we "played" the Cardinals.

Working a year in advance, it's suicide and/or cruelty to your players to schedule a gauntlet of Big Ten or SEC teams (all of which could end up being pretty good in any given season).

Tell me The Class of the Independents doesn't pepper the bullshit games in there, even if they have "traditions and rivalries" to excuse themselves.

Your an idiot if you make FSU a cupcake school. Any arguement you put after that is null and void for the sake you are either mentally insane or so dumb the state considers that you ride the short bus. Kentucky is SUCH a better football program then FSU, IDIOT. Georgia, S Car., and Vandy are all teams that would beat ANY school in the Big 10 excluding Mich and OSU, and Wisconsin would put up a good fight. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE....

The $51.1 million posting fee is due in full following Bostons signing of Matsuzaka, ONLY if Boston signs him. IF Boston and Boras fail to make an deal the fee is voided and Matsuzaka returns to Japan for 1 year before being a free agent after 2007.

Also, yes, Dan, everybody who reads this have "noticed" that you are granting OSU and Michigan "one quality win" (or less) each.

In what could be Scar Tissue's first good post ever, he turns the camera around and points out that everything you say about Wisconsin, and especially about Texas, is double-plus-true for EVERYBODY on UF's schedule. I think, if we went around the horn, we would be able to say some pretty devastating things about every team, except maybe UM and OSU (aside from the brand new observations that you have been bringing up for two weeks). And Rutgers, unless you count that scrape against UConn. And Boise State, unless you count the scare against ...SJSU, plus the fact that they suck.

USC - lost, to lame team.ND - killed, at home.UF - see above.Rutgers - I like Rutgers, but I can count their "quality wins" on zero, maybe one, fingers. (We'll see about WVU, of course).Arkansas - killed, at home.WVU - hahaha. I told you bitches. Go back to high school and learn some fundamentals.Wisconsin - lost once. No super-great wins.Louisville - I likewise told you bitches.LSU - how many times have they lost now?Boise State - talk to me again about creampuff schedules.Texas - killed at home, lost to KSU.Auburn - maybe it wasn't that defense in the big SEC showdown early on; maybe LSU's offense just sucked.Cal - killed plus lost equals nope.

Alright, that's 15. How far down must I go?CFB is hard to do well; consistency is almost all we have to go on. Wisconsin has managed that, against a bunch of teams that could certainly beat 110 Div I-A teams on a really great day.

oh, and ludakris -

That's so silly I'll let it stand for itself. He who makes the most typos and the longest run-on sentence does not necessarily win. And I think Indiana would beat Georgia. inter alia. Deal with it.

Lebron played in high school (easily considered a bigger difference from the NBA than the Japanesse League is to the MLB) and everyone said he was unproven, he can't play on real defenders.

I saw the WBC and that gyroball is for real. search gyroball on youtube and find the 22 sec clip. watch the rotation, that ain't no breaking ball.

He was the MVP of the WBC!!!

Don't say he's unproven. That's shortsighted. The US didn't get into the finals and this guy was the MVP.

It is predicted the red sox are going to go nuts with this. How great is this idea! They want to green screen a ton of the ads in Fenway so that they can be sold TWICE. once to american companies and once to japanesse for their broadcast. Apparently they are trying to get a deal to have all of Gyromans starts on Japanesse TV. Imagine the bidding was for those rights in Japan. And that money isn't shared like the jersey money.

Gammons says that there will now be a Yankee/Sox rivalry cause it's Matsui/Matsuzaka now. I suspect that if they make a tv deal and get a share of the commercials sold when Gyroman pitches against the yankees that's a TON OF MONEY.

Houston homer yes, but how about Roy Oswalt only finishing fifth in the Cy voting? He leads the NL in ERA and leads a team with all of zero offensive production to withing half a game of the playoffs (over the team that would win the world series even). On a squad with a future hall of famer and a world series winner Oswalt is the Astro's true ace. Yet he consistently gets no respect despite annually performing in September and (when we make it) October when it counts.

It takes more than one unproven pitcher (sorry, guyin, you'll just have to hate me; you were probably one of the ones predicting a Cy Young out of Beckett last year. Umm, how's that working for ya') to be the team to beat. I'll still take the Tigs, yanks, and twinkies in the AL (at least one knows what Their pitchers will do for you. With the Sox, I'd say you have three unknowns, with Papelbon (hasn't been an MLB starter), Matsu (ditto), and Schilling (getting older and brittler with every throw), and one known, with Beckett (and we know he'll consistently be really good and pretty bad in consecutive starts)).

But I am beginning to believe the arguments that it might be a pretty good investment, to get established in Japan. Noticed the Mets put up a pretty high bid for him, since they swung and missed with Kaz.

But I am quite certain that it doesn't make the BoSox 'the team to beat'. If they're lucky, it might help them secure second place in the AL East again.

Just becuase you can use a bit of latin does not make you smart, for one.(PERIOD) Two, What is lame about Oregon.(PERIOD) Three, what fundamentals does WVU need to learn? (Question Mark) They seem to run the ball VERY nicely, and that is FUNDAMENTALLY sound. (PERIOD) Fourth, what did you tell us about Lousiville that we did not already know? (Question Mark) I did not realize you were such a highly regarded football analyst and you saw what noone else in America or this blog saw.(Period) But go ahead and put it in our faces, bithces! (Exclamation point)

Any point you make I can counter with Rational thinking, deal with it. Oh, and to say that INDIANA, could beat Georgia is the most idiotic thing you could have said. This IS Georgia's worst season in a long time, and Indiana's best season in a long time, and Georgia would still beat them soundly. Your remarks just show how little thought you put into your remarks.

* I did not realize I was being graded on spelling when I rant on a blog. Please, just becuase you did good in English since you were 5 years old, let it go. You can excel at so much more in life then trying to be so damn ostentatious!

UGA would beat Indiana 9 times out of 10. As it would Vandy and Kentucky. That being said, All three could beat UGA and this year, very well might. However, don't forget that UGA has athletes on par with USC, Miami, UF, Texas, OSU and Michigan.

We put more guys in the League than 115 schools in 1-A. UGA might be having the worst year in recent memory, BUT, they still know how to win.

All that to say, I think we suck this year, our D doesn't show up very often, BUT as long as Georgia Tech has Reggie Ball, UGA wins. Case closed.

O.J. "How I would have killed her." Doesn't he mean, O.J. "After watching 8 seasons of CSI this is how I should have killed her." Would O.J. please, please just go away and never come back. It's beyond mocking the justice system at this point. He is flipping it both birds and sticking his tongue out at it. Can't he just die in some really weird, awful way. Where is the Karma on this.

Also, I let everything else in your previous comment go, seeing no need for correction. But you shouldn't take my word for it - if ND beats USC and USC hasn't suffered a loss to Cal, y'all are probably bouncing up to #2. Isn't that all the agreement you need?

ludakris -Umm... Oregon State. They're lame because they're not good. Unranked teams generally don't have that much going for them.West Virginia, as far as I can tell, FUMBLES the ball "VERY nicely."And what I told you was that Louisville was going to lose to Rutgers, because they are not as dominant as many people claimed. In fact, I believe Rutgers, by actually playing defense, shut them down.What I said, specifically, was that Rutgers's defense would be solid, Rutgers wouldn't hand Louisville tons of points by fumbling or making boneheaded special teams plays, and Louisville had no chance of stopping Rice. I estimated that Rice would run for "a buck-fifty," which was off by a total of 19 yards.

And the reason I attacked your grammar and spelling was that I realized there was no way to actually figure out whether Vandy would actually beat Wisconsin, as you had proposed. I just knew that your argument was so patently ridiculous that there was no way logic could ever hope to fight it.

and florida's quality win is against which 2 loss team? or is it against 3 loss Tenn? oh that's right, they lost to a team with 2 losses too!

not to mention they needed a guy (Moss) who is being suspeneded THIS week against W.Carolina to block a few kicks last week to get them the W at home 17-16 v. SC.

Wonder if they weren't playing Spurrier if he (Moss) would have been suspended last week.

You call Wisco's schedule "cream puff" when florida's non-conf consists of W. Carolina and C. Florida...and the bully of the bunch Southern Miss...which we all know must suck as a football team since Favre went there right?

ever notice that dan kicks the conversation off and we spend the thread talking to one another? I enjoy reading and reacting to the opinions of others smart enough to construct an argument, whereas you just come in and talk shit about Dan who you must be in love with or have at the least a man crush on because of the way you stalk him. I'm also picking up a hint of abandonment issues with what you post, relating dan's departure from page 2 and your own...father/mother? leaving you at an early age.

So Boston has no closer, no right fielder, no short stop. They have a disgruntled left fielder, a flop in center field and Josh Beckett, not the All Star anyone expected. Their overpaid catcher suffered a serious and predictable decline last year. And they're relying on two 40 year olds in the rotation.

But hey, they got Matsuzaka and he can pitch every day and play every position just like Bugs Bunny. World Series Champs, baby!

Dan seems to think Dice-K will win the Cy Young next year. Being a Sawx fan I'm opptimistic, but not that much. I say 32 GS, 19-7, 3.50 ERA, 195 IP, 210 SO, 80 W. He starts out strong, but fades in the second half as teams see his pitches more. I have him at the highes third in the Cy Young race behind Johann Santana and Roy Halladay...if he gets signed that is.

Everyone has to concede that a '5 star' program (ND, Mich, OSU, USC, Oklahoma, Texas) will always get the edge when they rumble through their season undefeated, or have 1 loss. And it does go to the point that someone made about schools like that having the top athletes in the country, and their storied histories of success.

That part is tough for programs like Boise State, Louisville, Wisconsin, Rutgers, to swallow when they MAY have a team perceived as equal in talent. (especially by their fan bases)

That said, let's all remember the NCAA is a big oiled machine that will always try to generate as much money as possible. Therefore the 'system' of polls, BCS, media etc. will subliminally favor programs that get the hype up.

How in the world has everyone forgotten that OJ was found guilty of murdering Nicole and Ron? Just because he was found innocent in the criminal trial (due to some pretty shitty prosecuting I might add) doesn't change the fact that he was found guilty in the civil trial and is officially held liable for the deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

I love it! Someone who blindly follows this guys blog because he wants to be "down" with the guy. Someone who thinks Shanoff gives two fucking cents about him. Someone who wants attention from someone who doesn't care about him. But I have the abandonment issues, good call.

At least I call Shanoff out on his stupid fucking ideas and opinions. I don't just sit here and agree with him like the rest of you bozos. You guys all think "instant history" is a legit sports argument?

Making claims like I have abandonment issues is lame. And I'm sure you'll spend 45 minutes calculating a comeback to this so have at it.

Since when in this world is 25 points being shut down? Seriously, you called that Miss Cleo. I do not see why you waste your time on this web site when you should start your own, since you know it all.

And then you bring WVU not playing fundamentally sound football becuase they fumbled a few times? 3 times to be exact, but two where part of the 3 fumbles in 4 plays that really was just a bunch of movement around mid field that did not lead to anything. If WVU had a problem, is was there defense letting up 44 points; not fumbling. Come correct or DON'T COME AT ALL.

Ken...Did I use a thesaurus, or did you use a dictionary just to learn what I was saying?

What the...Dan, are you kidding me? The Sox the favorites to win the AL next season? Their rotation includes Paplebon - who has yet to prove he's a good starter, Schilling - who's about 700 years old, Beckett - who's extremely overrated, Wakefield - let's just move on, and Matsazuka...how many Japanese pitchers have been successful for more than a year or two in MLB - that's right, NONE.

Plus, they have major holes at 2B, SS, CF, and the bullpen that they won't be able to fill now. And keep in mind that, although Matsazuka is only 26 years old, he's thrown about as many innings as someone 30ish would have here...

(And Zito will be a bust as well - all the Oakland starters throw a lot of innings early in their careers, then break down a couple years later (see: Hudson, Tim and Mulder, Mark), and Zito threw more innings than the others. Plus he doesn't have the stuff of a #1 starter.

I hate to interrupt your arguement with this, but your analogy is flawed. LeBron was playing against high school competition, but he was also 17-18 years old, and was still growing physically and mentally. Plus he got lots of time against NBA-caliber talent at the elite camps, in summer league, and so forth. Matsuzuka is not still growing and improving, so your analogy really doesn't quite work.

Unfortunately the only thing required to be found guilty in a civil trial is to convince a judge that OJ is to blame somehow for the death.

I'm not saying he's guilty or innocent, but nothing can be based on the results of a civil trial. OJ could have been held liable of her death simply by being a bad husband to her, therefore leading her to this Ron Goldman guy. All kinds of idiocy is passed in court for truth in civil cases if enough money is involved, just ask the dumbshit who convinced a judge it was McDonald's fault she spilled coffee on herself while driving.

Seriously though, you can't put much stock in the civil trial as that only requires 51% of the jury to find in favor of OJ's guilt, whereas the criminal trial has a much higher burden of proof. We can all disagree on whether or not he did the deed, but he got his day in court and was found not guilty. End of story.

I would say the reason these smaller conference teams have so much trouble getting traction in the BCS is because the "corporate masters" that run the BCS know those big time bowls games won't generate as much money if there isn't the traditional big name schools. Seriously, how many people do you think would watch OSU/UM vs. ND/USC play for the national title compared to OSU/UM vs. Rutgers? It comes down to dollars and cents, and thus the little programs come out losers unless they can sustain a winning tradition long enough to generate true national interest. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Speaking of perfect - anyone catch the rangers scoring three goals in a minute twenty six last night against cross town/state rival Devils last night. The second goal was ridiculous...little whiff/floater over Brodeur. Hockey does not get the credit it deserves.

AMEN to that NDYanksfan. Hockey is an awesome sport.. and one I am more then happy to acknowledge is a niche sport in the US. But there is no need to completely snub a sport that has some of the most intense competition compared to anything else out there. Especially if you are going to use that space to cover DWTS.

Their defense didn't allow anywhere near 44 points.West Virginia's offense - touchdown allowed off fumble at 13-yd line.West Virginia's special teams - touchdown on the worst punt/coverage I have ever seen in my whole life.

Not making an attempt to sign Matsawhatever would be the dumbest thing the Boston front office has done yet (dumber than 4-$40 mill to Beckett). Doing so would piss off all of Japan and the other Asian countries, plus it would piss off the biggest agent in all of sports, Scott Boras. That being said, it's still a possibility, because quite frankly I'm not sure the Sox front office knows what the hell they're doing right now.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.